Evidence of IT salaries turnaround

Salaries for permanent IT jobs in the UK have risen by 2 per cent over the last 12 months, with the average salary for an IT professional now standing at £36,818.

According to a study by technology recruitment specialist CV Screen, there is growing evidence of confidence returning to ICT employment. The report benchmarks 50 different IT roles and monitors over 7,000 advertised positions in the UK during Q1/2010.

“Over the last 12 months [we have seen] salaries rise by 2 per cent,” says CV Screen managing director Matthew Iveson. “We noticed that in Q4 last year (2009) that there was a large increase in vacancies, largely caused by pent-up demand from employers who had been sitting tight during the economic slowdown.”

The CV Screen findings also observed that there are more applications per vacancy, with a 36 per cent increase in the number of applicants over the same 12 month period.

“At the beginning of 2009 it was clear that candidates were understandably reluctant to change roles due to the economic climate,” Iveson adds. “Only now are we seeing greater mobility in the market as IT professionals have the confidence to seek new roles which offer career prospects and in many cases a higher salary.”

In respect to most in-demand skills, Iveson reports demand from employers for Web Development and PHP (Hypertext preprocessor) expertise “There is also continual high demand for candidates with Java and .NET skills; and we have also noticed a large rise in the number of SEO jobs available,” says CV Screen’s Iveson. “It is clear that companies are actively recruiting within their IT departments, particularly in e-commerce where, we are seeing continued high demand as companies look to boost their Web presence.”